


Gift Giving

by heckinamanda



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: M/M, during holiday times, have fun reading about two boys that like each other a whole lot, hmmmm cute fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 23:43:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17130953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heckinamanda/pseuds/heckinamanda
Summary: Andi helps Cyrus get a gift for TJ, while Buffy helps TJ get a gift for Cyrus.





	Gift Giving

**Author's Note:**

> hooty hoo it's been a while! sorry about that but I have an excuse: brain machine broke
> 
> aside from that, this fic is a gift to @cxrus-kippen on tumblr! logan, you're such a sweet person and I hope this isn't wholly disappointing. <3

Andi found herself walking through Christmas displays at the mall. The twinkling lights and fake snow would’ve been a beautiful sight for her, but it’s hard to enjoy anything when one of your best friends is constantly complaining.

“The holidays should not be this stressful,” Cyrus said.

“They don’t have to be. Just take it easy,” she advised.

“I can’t take it easy,” he yanked on his scarf. “I need to buy TJ something he will _love,_ and we’re already on limited time.”

“I don’t know why you put it off for this long, you knew when the holiday party was,” she scolded.

“I know! It’s the same time every year, etcetera etcetera,” he politely mocked her. “But I promise, I’ve been looking for a gift the whole time. Nothing has really… Stood out.”

“Then tell me about what he likes,” she suggested. “It might help.”

“Well he loves basketball, obviously. And he’s a big history nerd,” he said. “Don’t tell him I told you that last part.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” she deadpanned.

He continued to think as they walked. She noticed how his eyebrows knit together and his mouth turned up slightly whenever he thought about TJ. “He plays piano, and the drums. He’s actually pretty into music. And hoodies, he wears _so_ many hoodies, especially his JMS one and the green one with—”

“Cyrus,” she cut off his rambling. “Focus.”

“Right, sorry,” Cyrus shook his head. “He likes muffins!”

“And you’ve made those for him before,” she pointed out.

“Yeah,” he mumbled. “Why does gift giving have to be so hard?”

Andi chuckled. “It’s not.”

“For _you._ You’re a gift giving goddess! It’s like your creativity never ends,” he sighed.

Andi smiled at the compliment right before making a face that her parents always describe as lightbulb-y.

“That gives me an idea,” she grabbed his wrist. “Let’s go.”

* * *

“Let’s _go,_ ” Buffy complained. “We’ve been here forever.”

“We haven’t been here that long.” TJ rolled his eyes.

She pulled out her phone to check the time. “It’s been an hour and fourteen minutes.”

“Just a little longer,” he said, waving her off. “I need this to be perfect.”

“Perfect? Everything in here is old and dusty,” she scoffed, gesturing to the quote unquote merchandise that littered the flea market they were at.

“If you want to go home you can. I don’t know why I brought you anyway,” he mumbled.

“Because I know Cyrus better than anyone,” she sighed, noticing that he was visibly upset at the lack of support. “I’ll keep helping you, but eventually we’re just gonna end up at the mall.”

“No we’re not,” he said. “Anyone can buy him something from the mall. I need to get him something special.”

She made a gagging noise before looking at another table.

“What about this?” She held up a 2019 planner.

“He does love organizing things, but it’s not…” he gesticulated.

“Special?” she finished sarcastically.

He rolled his eyes again. “I know you’re making fun of me, but you’re right.”

“I know,” she said before holding up rainbow suspenders. “Eh?”

“No.”

“What about for you?”

“No, again.”

She put them down. “You’re making this even less fun.”

“Sure, _I’m_ the problem,” he laughed.

“Always,” she joked. “You know, I usually just buy people gift cards and call it a day.”

“Way to spoil your gift to me,” he snorted. “You really don’t have a sentimental bone in your body, do you?”

She shrugged. “Of course I do. It’s just… Small.”

She remembered Time Capsule Buffy and all of the photos she would go through with her mom every once in a while. She _can_ be sentimental, she just chooses not to be.

“Oh my god,” TJ said, suddenly jogging away from her. She quickly followed him over to a table with a jewelry stand.

The vendor behind the table greeted them as they looked over the small items on the jewelry stand. It had bracelets, charms, and necklaces resting on it.

“This is…” TJ trailed off, looking at one particular item.

Buffy put her hand on his shoulder. “Perfect.”

* * *

“ _Ow,_ ” Cyrus whined.

“Did you prick your finger again?” Andi asked with an exasperated sigh.

“This is a lot harder than it looks okay,” he defended himself. “Where’d you learn how to knit anyway?”

“Cookie taught me the last time she visited. She gave me this whole set of yarn and needles to keep right here in Andi Shack,” she told him. “So I haven’t been doing it for very long, but I’ll give myself some credit.”

“Credit for being way better than me.” He held up his… Creation. It was mostly just an ugly jumble of yarn.

“Oh geez,” she grabbed another pair of knitting needles. “Maybe I need to intervene more than I thought.”

“As much as possible, please,” he said.

They sat in silence for a while, with Cyrus trying to re-knit everything and Andi adjusting the occasional mistake. He was really grateful for her, for having the idea to knit TJ this gift in Andi Shack and for helping him do it. But with that came the worry. Maybe this isn’t TJ’s thing. Maybe TJ doesn’t want something lovingly handmade from his friend.

“Do you think he’s actually gonna like this?” he asked suddenly.

“I already told you he’s going to love it.” He looked up just in time to catch her rolling her eyes at his concern.

“Yeah but… You know I worry,” he said. “I just really want him to like it.”

“I know,” she said simply. “As long as it comes from you, he’ll love it.”

“So you’re telling me I _didn’t_ have to put this much effort into his gift?” he joked.

“Nope,” she laughed. “But that’s what you do when you’re lovesick.”

He blushed. “Very funny.”

“That wasn’t necessarily a joke,” she muttered, but he could hear the loving tone.

“I’m not lovesick,” he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “I like him a completely average amount.”

“Oh, so _that’s_ why you skipped Mack family game night to hang out with him,” she said sarcastically.

He continued knitting. “You’re still hung up on that, huh?”

“Absolutely,” she said. “It was five game nights in a row. _Five._ ”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ll come next time,” he stopped knitting to put up his pinky. “I promise.”

She wrapped her pinky around his. “Good. You can bring TJ, if you want.”

He smiled. “I think he’d like that.”

* * *

“I feel like we should just turn around,” TJ said nervously.

“You can turn around if you want, but this is a tradition for me.” Buffy knocked on the door of the Mack family home.

“Okay so we’re just—we’re just knocking on doors now, huh?”

“Dude, calm down,” she laughed. “It’s gonna be fine. He’s going to like it.”

He took a surprising amount of comfort in her words. “Thanks, Buffy. For helping me at the flea market the other day and walking me here and… Y’know, everything.”

“You’re welcome,” she said sincerely. “Ugh, that was awful.”

“Yep, I regretted it immediately,” he said quickly. They laughed slightly at their struggle to be heartfelt with each other before the door opened in front of them.

“Buffy!” Andi greeted her happily. “And TJ! Glad you could make it.”

“Thanks, I’m glad too,” he said. He followed Buffy inside, where Cyrus was coming around the corner.

“Hey!” Cyrus was showing them his widest grin, the one that TJ adored more than anything.

“Here, I uh—I have something for you,” he said, pulling a small box shoddily wrapped in blue paper out of his pocket and holding it out in front of him. “Happy Hanukkah.”

Cyrus’ face lit up. “I have something for you, too!”

The shorter boy looked over at Andi expectantly. She rolled her eyes before disappearing into the living room, reappearing seconds later with a box wrapped in paper that had green and red plaid printed on it.

She handed the box to Cyrus, who held it out in front of him as well.

“Merry Christmas,” he told him with a soft smile. They swapped boxes and started unwrapping them.

TJ had a habit of opening gifts fast and aggressively since childhood. So it was no surprise that he was already done unwrapping his while Cyrus was still carefully unwrapping the small box in his hand, as if he was afraid to tear the cheap paper.

“That paper cost me a dollar, you don’t have to be so delicate,” TJ chuckled.

“Shush, just open yours,” Cyrus said. He stopped unwrapping to watch TJ open the white box that was waiting under the plaid paper.

He popped the top off the box, revealing a soft green hat. He grabbed it out of the box, which he put under his arm.

He stared at it for a moment. “Did you make this?”

“Yeah, with Andi’s help. It’s obviously not perfect, but I tried,” Cyrus laughed nervously. “It’ll match your favorite hoodie. The green one, I mean.”

“Cyrus, this is incredible!” TJ exclaimed, genuinely happy that Cyrus put so much effort into a gift for someone like him. “I love it _so_ much.”

He wasn’t wearing the aforementioned hoodie, but he put the hat on anyway, squashing down his gelled hair.

“You make the poor knitting job work,” Cyrus joked.

“Come on, open yours,” TJ said. Opening Cyrus’ gift suddenly made him excited for him to see what was inside the little box.

“Okay.” Cyrus seemed just as excited as he finished unwrapping it.

Worry started to fill his mind again when he watched Cyrus take the top off of the box. What if he thought this was dumb?

“It’s—you know, it’s—it’s like—I know it’s dumb—”

“TJ,” Cyrus said softly, right before wrapping his arms around TJ’s neck and pulling him in for a hug.

The unexpected weight and warmth took him by surprise, but he quickly wrapped his arms around Cyrus’ waist. “So… You like it?”

“Like it?” Cyrus pulled his head away to look at him, but he didn’t move his arms. “Are you kidding me? I love it!”

“I’m really glad that you do,” TJ smiled. “I was really worried about it because I don’t know if you’re a charm guy but look—”

TJ—very regretfully—pulled away from Cyrus to grab the small silver charm out of the box to shake it. “The swings actually move!”

“It’s adorable,” Cyrus snorted, taking the miniature swing set back. “You’re adorable.”

TJ could feel himself blushing like crazy. And although he could see a slight blush on Cyrus’ cheeks as well, he didn’t seem embarrassed. He actually seemed confident in what he was saying.

“Oh, would you look at!” Andi said suddenly, reminding the two boys that she and Buffy were still there. “Mistletoe!”

“There’s no mistletoe in this—”

TJ stopped talking when Buffy walked over to the them, lifting mistletoe above their heads.

“Where did you get that?” Cyrus asked.

“That doesn’t matter,” she waved her free hand at them. “What matters is that it’s here.”

“And you know the Christmas rules,” Andi stood behind her.

“To be fair, I don’t celebrate—”

“ _Cyrus,_ ” the girls said in unison.

“Just sayin’,” he said with his hands up. “But who am I to disrespect tradition?”

TJ exhaled. He was worried there for a second that Cyrus didn’t want to kiss him. Wait, what if Cyrus doesn’t want to kiss him? _This really could just be a respect thing,_ he thought, _oh god what if it’s bad and then he never wants to kiss me again. I wasn’t prepared for this what if my breath smells or my lips are too chapped from the cold or—_

His panicked thoughts were cut off by the feeling of Cyrus’ lips against his cheek. It was only for a second, but it was all the contact TJ needed to internally melt.

“I uh—I—yeah,” he struggled to create a sentence. Cyrus and the girls just laughed at him.

“Let’s get to the living room,” Andi said. “We have presents to unwrap too.”

“Right,” TJ shook his head, still reeling. “Right right right.”

Buffy wrapped her arm around Andi and walked them into the living room, leaving TJ alone with Cyrus for just a moment.

“That was okay, wasn’t it?” Cyrus asked him.

“ _Yes,_ ” he cleared his throat. “Yeah, I mean—yeah.”

Cyrus smiled at him. “Then… Can I do it again?”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” TJ’s confidence returned now that the ball was in his court. “I don’t see any mistletoe around.”

“Oh really? There’s one right there.” Cyrus started moving in closer to him.

“Where?” TJ moved in as well.

“Right over there,” Cyrus put his hands on TJ’s face. “You’re too tall to see it.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he laughed, wrapping his arms around Cyrus’ waist again.

“Are you gonna prove me wrong?” Cyrus challenged.

“Nope,” TJ said, finally closing the gap between them.


End file.
